Feeling: Temperature-wise okay – I started off cold but warmed up enough that partway through, I took off my jacket. As for my knee, it was not feeling so great. I tried to do some heavy stretching when I got home and iced it for about 15 minutes afterwards as well.

♦♦♦

Friday Re-cap

Friday’s breakfast included a twist on what has become my standard bowl of overnight oats: Apple Pie Overnight Oats. The night before, I mixed together:

On the side, I had a simple baby spinach salad with carrots and creamy yogurt Honey Mustard dressing (I was really low on produce at this point!).

It turned out that my thin rice cakes were not a good substitute for the burger patties as they completely fell apart when I tried to take a bite. So I ended up crumbling everything and throwing it in my salad. It was actually really tasty in the end!

I was off-site for the majority of the afternoon, so while I was out, I snacked on half a Sweet & Salty Peanut Granola bar (those things are sweet but oh so sinfully delicious!), and an apple.

When I got back to the office, I was still hungry and very low snacks in general, so I “settled” (secretly rejoiced) in almost an entire bag of mini eggs. I think there were 4 or 5 left when I realized that I should really stop myself before I spoiled my dinner.

I also got an email from my ND who informed me that my blood test came back and showed that I am a little low on iron. She says that’s likely the reason why I’ve been feeling so tired during my runs lately. I’m not sure if this is a result of me eating less meat and maybe not having enough completely proteins to supplement the lack of meat in my diet lately, but in any case, I will be adding iron supplements to my list of morning vitamins from now on. I will be taking them for 3-4 months on her recommendation and then reassess my levels at that point. I’m anxious to see if I notice a difference during my runs!

After work, I met with some friends and we went to Crystal Rolls near Spadina and Bloor. I ordered the vegetarian rice noodles and they were nice enough to add some tofu on it. It was… alright. I think there was way too much sauce and the portion (which is often the case at restaurants!) of noodles was much too big for me to eat. I ended up eating all of the vegetables and tofu, and left about half of the noodles.

As is always the case when I eat white noodles and rice, I ended up feeling hungry again a couple of hours later. When I got back to my apartment, I snacked on a few rice crackers, one small oatmeal cookie, and one small reduced fat Oreo. Haha.

Then I headed back out to meet up with some friends. We ended up spending a couple of hours at my friend’s place, where I would rather not get into too much detail about how many handfuls of party mix and Doritios I ate (I swear, I never eat these things, nor do I ever by them … but when they’re innocently offered to me? It seems my resolve goes right out the window!). Then we went to Karaoke bar where we had a few drinks and greasy fries. At this point, I decided not to get too down on myself for eating what I want.

I think on occasion, it’s nice to just go with the flow and not worry so much about whether you’re balancing everything properly! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! 😉

♦♦♦

Saturday Re-cap

Since my knee was still acting up the night before while I was out, and I got home really late, I decided to turn off my alarm clock and allow myself to wake up naturally. When I finally woke up, I wasn’t very hungry and decided to start my day with a Green Monster instead of the bowl of hot cereal that I was originally planning to make. In it, I added 3 or 4 handfuls of baby spinach, 1/2 c soy milk, 1/2 banana, and 1/4 c strawberries. Simple and satisfying.

Lunch was pretty much the highlight of my Saturday meals.

Since I was at home, I decided to lightly sauté my baby spinach with some cooking spray and some salt-free vegetable seasoning.

After I was finished, I threw on a few pieces of mango in the frying pan (with the element turned off) to heat the mango through.

And then I assembled the beautiful double-burger madness pictured below.

I started with half a piece of toasted Ezekiel 4:9 English Muffin and alternated between layering salsa, sautéed baby spinach, and a In A Jiffy Spelt Veggie Burger patty. On the side, I had the rest of my baby spinach, warm mango, and salsa.

This.was.so.good. If you haven’t already made these, I demand that you do so immediately!

At times, the spinach was buttery soft, the salsa added a nice tang to the patties, and the warm mango was perfect. I savoured every single bite and almost marched right back into the kitchen to make another one.

After lunch, I headed out to pick up a few supplies for later on that evening and snacked on a dried date.

I had a few friends coming over to celebrate my sister and a mutual friend’s birthdays so I thought it would be fun to surprise them with cake. What I really wanted to do, was experiment with making chocolate cake using black beans, but I was a bit worried about last night’s audience and I didn’t want to scare off the birthday girl. I couldn’t resist adding a little Fueling for Fitness touch to it though, so I use 100% whole wheat flour instead. I based my cake on this recipe, and made modifications to match what I already had on hand.

Dark Chocolate Whole Wheat Cake

Ingredients:

6 tbsp coca powder plus 2 tbsp butter

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 c butter, softened at room temperature

1 1/4 c natural brown sugar, lightly packed

2 eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla

1/2 c sour cream

1/2 c boiling water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease and flour a 9” cake pan.

In a microwave, melt 2 tbsp butter and mix in cocoa powder until fully combined. Set aside and allow it to cool.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Using a whisk or fork (I don’t have a sieve, otherwise I would have used that), mix ingredients together and set aside.

Combine 1/4 c butter and sugar together using a whisk until well combined. Add eggs and continue to whisk until incorporated. Add vanilla and cooled chocolate and whisk together until fully combined.

Gradually stir in the flour mixture in approximate thirds, alternating each time with 1/4 cup of the sour cream.

Stir in the boiling water. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 23 minutes. Do not overbake this cake! Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Notes: I ended up panicking when my tester came out slightly moist and ended up baking it for another 6-10 minutes, unlike the instructions cautioned me to do. When the tester still came out moist, I decided to just leave it and allow it to cool instead. This cake would probably have been even better if I had just followed the initial instructions. I also didn’t line the bottom with parchment paper against my better judgment. I thought that the butter and flour would have been enough but it was a struggle getting the cake out of the pan after it had cooled.

In case you can’t see, the candles spell out 29. 🙂

It was really difficult getting a good picture of it. I ended up topping the cake with a layer of Dark Dreams Chocolate Peanut Butter and a light whipped topping. I figured we could all do without the ganache pairing that was suggested.

Dinner was a bit informal and late. I ended up ordering a pizza and had one thin slice of cheese pizza, half a piece of garlic bread with cheese, a few brown rice crisps, honey multi-grain braided twists, some sour cream and yogurt dip that I made, and more sautéed baby spinach because I had a craving! Oh, and I may or may not have had two glasses of white wine at my apartment and another glass at the bar. 😀

♦♦♦

Sunday Morning Re-cap

If you made it this far, I am really impressed (and thank you!).

After Friday and Saturday night’s naughty eating, I decided to start off the day right, especially since I had a long run ahead of me.

I began with a bowl of overnight oats (yes, I did make them when I got back from the bar). I wasn’t exactly in the mood to be too creative so this one contained:

1/3 c rolled oats

1/3 c organic soy milk

1/3 c plain yogurt

1/2 banana

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of cloves

Toppings:

1 tbsp flaxseed meal

thawed strawberries

almond butter

I swear this stuff is magical. I felt satisfied throughout the entire 18.5k run. I brought a gel just to be on the safe side, but I completed my run with nothing else except plain water. My knee was acting up though, which was unfortunate and annoying, so I think I am going to make it a priority to get it checked out this week.

When I got home, I wasn’t feeling too hungry, so I had a Honey Nut Brown Rice Cake topped with almond butter and apricot jam. You can also see the pack of frozen peas that I used to ice my knees with. It helped… but I think I’m beyond the point of fixing my nagging knee problem with some post-run ice. I’m starting to feel a little nervous about whether I’ll be able to run on race day, but I’ve still got a few weeks to figure things out, so I’ll just scale back my training from this point on and make plans not to go all out on race day.

This post took me so long to write, that I’m already ready to eat again! Before I scurry to the kitchen to throw together some lunch, I’d love to know your thoughts/personal experiences on physiotherapists, chiropractors, and sports therapists. Do you swear by one type for your sports-related injuries, and if so, why?

For me the only time I’ve had success with therapy to treat a sports injury is when I saw a chiro who moved a misaligned rib back into place. I’ve done physio for other sports injuries, but in the end rest always ends up being the cure. That said, I’ve been lucky — I’ve avoided any major problems so far!

I’m a big fan of the overnight oats. I like seeing all of the different variations that people are doing. Your’s look great!!
My brother is a chiropractor, and before him I never really thought of seeing one. I’m fortunate that I get to see him on a regular basis. I work out, A LOT and have had knee problems since I was very young. He has helped me tremendously. What I like about chiro’s is that they look for a natural way to heal you before suggesting putting chemicals into your body. But that is just my .02
I’m glad I found your blog 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by! Overnight Oats ARE amazing, huh? Oh, I’m all for natural healing over putting chemicals into your body! I used to get allergy shots a few years ago, but I decided to stop taking them and to battle my allergies with exercise and healthy eating. It seems like things are working well so far *crosses fingers*!

I tried making the apple pie oats this morning, but for some reason I didn’t enjoy it as much. The apple sauce kind of overwhelmed it. I think maybe I needed to use some yogurt instead of just soymilk overnight.
But overall I am enjoying the ease of making the oats for breakfast. 🙂

I’m glad you’re trying it and enjoying it!!! I love it so much because it takes the guesswork out of breakfast and I can eat within minutes of waking up. I personally enjoy the banana over the apple sauce too – but in a pinch, apple sauce is pretty tasty as well.

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